Oxfordshire Woodland Group

In 2013 Henry Russell and Barbara Czoch designed and built a cruck timber-framed woodland craft shed at Harcourt Arboretum, Oxon for Oxford University.

Now that 13 years have passed we can see how the shed has toned down and blended into the surrounding environment. Some conifer needles have settled on the shingles at the change in pitch at the lower roof slope.

The shed interior shows no signs of weathering (leakage and wind blown) mainly due to it being highly ventilated

Regrettably some vandalism was observed (crayon on main posts).

J Jayashankar (OWG Ladies team) visited the shed in May 2026 to record the shed's current status and make observations on its timber conversion, framing practices and current use.

Some cross grain shrinkage is evident at brace joint (////)

The foundation pads appear to be doing their job with no decay at the post foot interface evident.